Last Chance to Read (Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine)

Member Name: R_Easton

Product:	Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine
Date:	13/10/01 (1309 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Educational, Informative, Thought Provoking

Disadvantages: Seems to finish quite quickly (although i may have been reading faster than I thought)

(I have put a couple of paragraphs copied from the book in this review. If you think this reveals too much of the story please comment on the comments page and I will consider changing.)

I finally got around to reading this book just recently (Hence ‘last chance to read’) after being saddened by the death of my writing hero (see my Douglas Adams Op). I wasn’t sure to expect and didn’t expect what I got. This book not only has Douglas Adams and saving endangered species in the same book (I will remind you he originally intended to call HHGG ‘The Ends of the Earth’ as it was going to be about 6 of them), it also has his comedy and some thought provoking comments, mostly about human nature. I have split the rest of this Op into sections that fit with the chapters of the book.

- Twig Technology -
In this chapter Douglas introduces himself and the book and goes to see the Aye-Aye a Madagascan lemur. He starts by showing he didn’t know what to expect either –
“This isn’t at all what I expected. In 1985, by some sort of journalistic accident I was sent to Madagascar with Mark Carwardine (a zoologist) to look for an almost extinct form of lemur called the aye-aye. None of the three of us had met before. I had never met Mark, Mark had never met me, and no-one, apparently, had seen an aye-aye in years.”
– This chapter is quite short, as Douglas and Mark went to Madagascar before the book was thought of. At the time it was intended that several unlikely stars would go around the world looking for endangered animals. A television programme was to be made of it with each episode showing a different animal and celebrity. Douglas went to Madagascar with Mark, finding the Aye-Aye on a small island offshore called Nosy Mangabé. He enjoyed this so much that he straight signed up for all the other episodes.

- Here Be Chickens -
In this chapter, Douglas and Ma
rk go to Labuan Bajo to see the Komodo dragon. The Komodo dragon is the biggest lizard in the world (some can grow up to 12ft long). They have trouble getting there though and first go to Australia to see a snake expert to warn them what to do if they meet any of the dangerous snakes on the island. When they finally get to Labuan Bajo, they go with a group of tourists to see some Komodo dragons being fed. Douglas sums up this adventure with a very interesting comment. –
“I was feeling pretty raw about my own species because we presume to draw a distinction between what we call good and what we call evil. We fid our images of what we call evil in things outside ourselves, in creatures that know nothing of such matters, so that we can feel revolted by them, and, by contrast, good about ourselves.”

- Leopardskin Pillbox Hat -
Next the pair go to Zaire, to see the White Rhino and (man’s closest relative) the Mountain Gorilla. They again have trouble at customs with corrupt officials but finally get to see what they wanted. They find the gorillas and are surprisedat their friendliness. They have to go in a helicopter to see the rhino and do finally find one fighting some hyenas.

-Heartbeats in the Night -
In this chapter they go to New Zealand to see the Kakapo, a very rare and strange flightless bird. They have a lot of trouble finding this bird and eventually find on an island that has been chosen as a sanctuary for them. They have to use a tracker dog to find the creature and this means chasing the dog round the island. They have trouble going to the island as the officials do not want to many people to go there and disturb the birds.

- Blind panic -
Next they go to China to search for the Yangtze River Dolphin. The dolphin is becoming extinct due to the amount of traffic on the river. Douglas compares it to ‘a deaf man in a disco’ but when Mark tells him that doesn’t m
ake sense he changes it to ‘a blind man in a disco’. They don’t find any dolphins in the wild so go to a sanctuary for the dolphins. They are very impressed by the funding schemes the consevation committee have come up with. They also use an ingenious method for listening to the sound of the river (I won’t spoil this for you).

- Rare, or Medium Rare? -
In the last chapter Douglas and Mark go to Mauritius to see (ready?) Rodrigues Fruitbat, Mauritius Kestrel, The Dodo, Echo Parakeet and the Pink Pigeon. They see so many rare animals in this chapter because Mauritius (like the Galapagos islands) has many rare animals. They originally intend to go to Rodrigues but were convinced otherwise by a local who had all of these animals at a conservation centre. The kestrel turns out to be the most interesting as it believe it is a human and has some very interesting mating habits. (One of these birds may be a fake, to see if you were listening (reading))


At the end of the book a chapter has been added to say how the animals have been doing since the pair were there. All of the animals are doing well it reveals. I believe this book isn’t very well known (and you may be reading when you haven’t even heard of the book) but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has an interest in endangered species, or Douglas Adams humour and opinion (this is worth reading it for).

Summary: